Totalfinaelf France

Delta Services Industriels S.p.r.l.

Total Marketing Services

Thierry Delvigne

Jerome Obiols

The invention relates to a method for the continuous determination of the damage to at least one system () used for the post-treatment of exhaust gases from an internal combustion engine (), caused by the lubricating oil, the fuel and/or at least one lubricating oil additive and/or fuel additive used. The inventive method consists in: (i) using a determined quantity of at least one radiotracer in order to modify the lubricating oil, the fuel and/or the additive for which the impact on the post-treatment system () is to be measured; (ii) measuring the quantity of radiotracer originating from the exhaust gases which has accumulated in the post-treatment system (), said measurement being taken using a detector () which is sensitive to radiation emitted by the radiotracer that has accumulated in the post-treatment system (); and (iii) transmitting the measurements taken by the detector () to a programmed computer () which can convert said measurements into the degree of damage caused to the post-treatment system by the lubricating oil, the fuel and/or the additive(s). The invention also relates to a device which is used to implement the inventive method.

Method and device for the continuous determination of damage to systems used for the post-treatment of heat engine exhaust gases

The invention relates to a method and device for the continuous determination of the lubricating oil consumption of an internal combustion engine. The inventive method consists in: placing a determined quantity of at least one radioactive tracer in the lubricating oil of which the consumption is to be measured; and measuring the quantity of radioactive tracer(s) present in the gases released from the engine (), said measurement being taken downstream of the engine. According to the invention, the quantity of radioactive tracer(s) of the lubricating oil present in the gases released from the engine () is measured as follows: the gases are brought into contact with a trap () which can physically trap the radioactive tracer particles, the radiation from the trap is measured using a detector () which is sensitive to radiation emitted by the trapped radioactive tracer(s) and the measurements taken by the detector () are sent to a programmed computer which can convert said measurements into the lubricating oil consumption rate of the engine.

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Froyennes, Belgium

Thierry Delvigne